1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to portable vacuum cleaners, and more particularly to a powerful, light-weight, and rugged portable, battery-powered vacuum cleaner.
2. Related Art
The DUSTBUSTER from Black & Decker produces insufficient suction power for many cleaning tasks and typically can not be used conveniently to vacuum floors from a standing position.
Units such as Eureka's BOSS LITE include a powered brush, which improves pick-up, but such units are typically undesirably fragile and, like a DUSTBUSTER, such units typically have insufficient suction power for many cleaning tasks.
Other portable vacuums, such as Black & Decker's SV 2000 upright, lose suction power undesirably quickly as their filters become dirty, and their small throats are susceptible to clogging.
In addition, prior art portable vacuum cleaners typically use nickel-cadmium batteries and re-chargers. Nickel cadmium batteries are expensive and have a tendency to develop a "memory" such that even if the battery is capable of providing twenty minutes of run time, if it is continually used for only five minutes and then recharged, the battery will eventually become capable of running for only five minutes. Further, prior art vacuums using Nickel cadmium batteries typically provide an undesirably limited amount of run time before the battery becomes drained and needs to be recharged.